An examination of aspects of Unidentified Aerial Phenomena (UAP) from a scientific perspective.

Thursday, December 24, 2009

Sense of self returns!

In several previous posts I wrote of the "sense of self" and how some people had a sense that, for example, their leg was not their own but belonged to someone else.Then there is the "alien hand syndrome" where someone believes their hand is not their own.

I wondered if the part of the human brain which controls this "sense of self" could switch off the entire body through a problem with this area, such that a person could believe that all of them was "alien" and not human?

One of the other books I am reading my way through at the moment is "Alien Dawn:an investigation into the contact experience" by Colin Wilson, 1998, Virgin Publishing of London ISBN 185 227 746 7.

On page 8 Wilson reviews a case history of a man called Paul, contained in John Mack's book "Abduction." "At this point in the hypnotic session, Paul seemed to break through an 'information barrier' and to recognise that he had a dual identity, as an alien and a human being. He came from another planet, and "there are a lot of us here." At one point, Paul remarked plaintively, 'I want to go home.'"

On page 9 "...Mack himself notes how many abductees feel that they themselves are part alien, and belong elsewhere than on earth."

P192. "In her book The Human Brain, Susan Greenfield points out that patients with damage to the parietal cortex often feel that parts of their body do not belong to them, and may even insist that their arm belongs to someone else."

Alan Jones, a reader of my blog left me a comment the other day about my post on "Alien hand syndrome, suggesting I read a book titled "The man who mistook his wife for a hat" by Oliver Sachs. Alan relates one of the stories from the book concerning a man in bed who found a strange leg in bed with him. The man threw the strange leg out of bed and promptly himself fell on the floor. It was actually his own leg but he didn't recognise it as such! Thanks Alan.